Austin Stacks (Kerry) 3-5 The Nire (Waterford) 2-4
For winter football to be worth the hardship, you have to appeal to the heart rather than the eye. Páirc Uí Chaoimh’s last game of football was a hurling snob’s dream. The ground was slippy, the hits were heavy, the error count was off the boards. Yet Austin Stacks are Munster champions for the first time in 38 years. Down around Rock Street, everything else is humbug.
They did it the hard way because there was no other way. They were 1-3 to 0-0 behind after just eight minutes. They were down to 14 men inside a quarter of an hour. They played virtually no football in the opening half. And still, they prevailed.
The hows and whys of it will tear at The Nire long after the season is done. No Waterford side has ever won a Munster title and few can have positioned themselves so perfectly to do so as the Fourmilewater side did here.
They were the better team by a distance in the early part of the game but couldn’t make it count. They got six ahead when really they’d have been worth anything up to a 10-point lead. Without a proper lead, you’re only ever a brain-freeze or two away from letting the other crowd back into it. And boy, did they have a brain-freeze or two.
“I suppose the start we got, we should have kicked on,” said The Nire manager Benji Whelan afterwards. “We invited them onto us a bit, which didn’t help at all. But the amount of silly mistakes we made today was incredible, after the run we’ve had. So I’d say when I sit down and watch it I’ll be sick.”
He will. But it wasn’t just The Nire who made mistakes. Stacks played some desperate stuff in the first half. They kicked twice as many wides as scores (six as against three) and were handed one of their goals when Nire goalkeeper Tom Wall chipped a kick-out straight to Shane O’Callaghan who put David Mannix in for an easy finish.
To be fair, O’Callaghan has to be exempted from any grumbling about the quality of the fare. The Kerry under-21 forward had no rival for man of the match here. He scored the first Stacks goal, laid their second on a plate for Mannix and at the start of the second half he hoisted their first point from play to grab them their first lead.
After a brilliant start during which Shane Ryan nailed a goal for The Nire to go with points by Michael O’Gorman and the excellent Conor Gleeson, the Waterford champions totally lost their rhythm from the 20-minute mark onwards.
The sending-off of Stacks centre forward Shane Carroll for a pair of yellow cards inside three minutes seemed to do The Nire more damage than the Kerry side. They never got to grips with using their extra man and as the game went on, Stacks found their feet. A Mannix free finished the scoring for the first half and sent the sides in at the break level on 2-1 to 1-4.
The bare look on the scoreboard said everything you needed to know about the game. A sheen of dew never quite cleared from the pitch and turned the surface into an ice-rink. The low winter sun shone right into the eyes of anyone kicking into the City End. Incredibly, that Mannix free was the only point kicked at that end of the pitch all afternoon. Between them, however, the two sides kicked 14 wides at that goal.
Stacks won’t give a hoot, obviously. As soon as O’Callaghan came out and put them ahead on 31 minutes, it was hard to see them losing it. The Nire did claw their way back into a 2-4 to 2-3 lead with a Michael Moore goal on 39 minutes but it was their last score of the day.
And it was wiped clean within two minutes when Pa McCarthy planted a penalty given against Tom Wall for a foot-block. Another Mannix free and a fine score from Fiachna Mangan saw Stacks safely home.
“They were magnificent today,” said Stephen Stack, manager of the Tralee side. “I’ve been proud of them this year on other occasions but to do what they did today against an exceptionally good Nire side when they were on the ropes in the first half, just shows what character and courage they have.
“We’ve had enormous faith in them all year but the great thing was they had it in each other today and that’s why we were able to pull that performance off with a man down.”
AUSTIN STACKS: D O'Brien; F McNamara, B Shanahan, C O'Connell; P McCarthy (1-0, pen), C Jordan, D McElligot; W Guthrie, G Horan; K Donaghy, S Carroll, D Bohan; D Mannix (1-2, two frees), S O'Callaghan (1-1), M Collins (0-1).
Subs: J Dennis for O'Connell (half-time); F Mangan (0-1) for Collins (44 mins); W Kirby for Guthrie (48 mins); D Long for Mannix (56 mins); M O'Donnell for Bohan (61 mins).
THE NIRE: T Wall; Justin Walsh, T O'Gorman, M O'Gorman; D Wall (0-1, free), B Wall, S Lawlor; C Guiry, S Walsh; M Moore (1-0), M O'Gorman (0-1), J Barron; C Gleeson (0-1), L Lawlor, S Ryan (1-1, one free).
Subs: K Guiry for J Walsh (40 mins); T Cooney for S Walsh (50 mins); D Ryan for S Lawlor (team, 53-56 mins); D Ryan for C Guiry (58 mins).
Referee: Conor Lane (Cork)
